The Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities

Freedom | Information | Acts

Join us for an open house of the first Studiolab, Freedom | Information | Acts, a full-year interdisciplinary graduate course addressing access to archival materials from the Jack Willis and Henry Hampton collections of civil rights documentary film projects, and to movement history more broadly.

Thinking through access to these materials and stories, the Studiolab students have used an array of archival sources to teach a research methods course at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center through WashU’s Prison Education Project.

Follow the link below for details and to RSVP.

Bound for Beauty: A Book Binding Demonstration

Intricately cut colors of leather, gold tooling and elaborate designs adorn the covers of beautiful books, but have you ever wondered how these books are made? To celebrate the exhibition Bound for Beauty, Washington University Libraries is hosting a book binding demonstration by Noah Smutz, book conservator. Noah will discuss how to bind a book, with models he created to illustrate the steps. He will also demonstrate how to prepare leather for binding and apply gold tooling for decoration. After the demonstration, attendees will be invited to view the exhibition and enjoy the beautiful bindings on display. 

Noah Smutz is a book conservator and the owner of NS Conservation LLC. Smutz has been in the field of conservation since 2011 when he started as a student worker in the University of Kansas Libraries conservation lab. He has since held internships for the Smithsonian Archives and Bodleian Library among others. He graduated with a master’s degree in book conservation from West Dean College in the United Kingdom. Previously he has worked as a book conservator for the Smithsonian Libraries. He has been a member of the American Institute for Conservation since 2010 and a Professional Associate since 2019.